textproduct: Quad Cities

KEY MESSAGES

- Active weather is expected at the beginning of the forecast period and again mid to late next week.

- Some accumulating snow is possible late tonight through Saturday, with a 20-40% chance of one inch of accumulation over most of the area, highest probabilities well northeast of the Quad Cities.

- There is weak signal for snow squalls on Saturday with the cold front during the afternoon.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH SATURDAY/

Issued at 234 AM CST Fri Jan 9 2026

Early this morning, the deformation band of the strong low moving northeast of the area, brought light rain to the area. At the same time, cold air rushed in behind the cold front. Winds briefly gusted 45 to 50 mph with the fropa and our temps, once near 60 last night is already in the 30s. As the cold front moves east through the day a second wave is expected to move in from the southwest tonight. At the same time, a stronger wave to our northwest is expected to move just north of us phasing with the SW wave just to our east. The wave tonight is expected to ride the baroclinicity to our east. This is expected to bring rain and snow to the area later tonight into the day on Saturday.

Today expect skies to clear later this morning ahead of the next wave. Temperatures in the 40s are expected with winds starting to slacken in the later morning as well. Overall a decent end to the work week, especially with the as of late, ever elusive sun.

Top down saturation is expected with the precip tonight as the wave moves across the area. The track of the wave, will keep the bulk of the precip east of a Memphis, MO to Galena, IL line. Once saturation occurs, and precip begins, areas across the eastern CWA can expect it to be rain, while further west it will be snow. As the other system approaches from the NW, the colder air will be pushed to the east leading to a transition from rain to snow. Model soundings struggle to show more than a couple hours of snowfall. While omegas in the dgz look decent enough for bursts of snow, guidance does not suggest snowfall rates that could lead to rapid accumulation of snow. In fact, probabilities for one inch of snow have decreased across the area. Think mostly grassy surfaces across IL will see snow accumulations.

LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY/

Issued at 234 AM CST Fri Jan 9 2026

Saturday afternoon a vorticity lobe associated with the NW wave will push into the area in the afternoon to early evening, bringing with it another cold front with even colder air than today. CAMs depict linear radar returns with this front. Looking closer at the GFS, there does appear to be a setup for snow squalls. 30 knot winds on the 0-2km layer, along with some SBCAPE and strong fgen look to occur with the front. At the current time, cold air looks to be lagging behind the snow, so a flash freeze does not look like it is in the cards. That said, we will need to keep an eye on this to see if timing changes. If we do get squalls, even without the flash freeze, we could see reduced vsbys with stronger winds in the snow during the day on Saturday. Overall accumulations again look like less than a few tenths of an inch of snow.

Northwest winds could gust around 20 to 30 mph Saturday afternoon through the day Sunday, along with lows Saturday night falling to the middle teens to lower 20s. Coupled with the winds, wind chill values Saturday night could fall to the single digits on either side of zero, so a cold night is expected. Highs Sunday should warm only to the upper 20s to lower 30s (actually seasonal for this time of the year!).

After this, a drier and moderating pattern develops to start the week. Eventually, strong ridging builds across the western CONUS leading to the clipper track focusing on our area late in the period. Overall forecast skill is low as guidance does not agree on a solution.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 1145 AM CST Fri Jan 9 2026

A weak system may bring some light precipitation to the area late tonight into Saturday morning. Surface temperatures near to slightly above freezing could support a mix of rain and snow initially before changing to all snow. Expect an increase in low cloud cover late tonight with a period of MVFR/IFR into Saturday AM. Confidence remains low on the coverage of precip so have mentioned potential in PROB30s for now.

DVN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

IA...None. IL...None. MO...None.